Sock Beasts
Lurking deep in the depths of the washrooms lies the Soccusbestia, a small creature that dwells in every household across the world. Soccus- derives from the Latin word meaning light slipper (sock) and –bestia derives from the Latin word “beast”. Soccusbestias, or Sock Beasts, is a branch off of the bat family. The diet of the Sock Beasts consisted of the same insects, such as moths and butterflies, as bats but had slight alterations to their appearance. Because Sock Beasts could see and had larger hands for grabbing, the Sock Beasts caught more food and became plumper. This limited bats to only relying on speed to get food before the Sock Beasts could, but Sock Beasts were soon beginning to outnumber bats. At the near extinction of the bats, humans began to create much larger towns and cities, forcing bats and Sock Beasts to change environment. Due to the large population of Sock Beasts, humans began to significant problems Sock Beasts competing for food. Butterfly populations dwindled, moth population thrived (because of the faster reproductive abilities) and since moths were attracted to the heat of the fires of the humans, Sock Beasts would go to any length to be fed at the cost of human safety. Humans originally started moving the fires indoors and built screen-like barriers that (at the time) blocked Sock Beasts but not bugs. Humans then decided to start eradicating Sock Beasts and because Sock Beasts had plumper bodies, this put Sock Beasts at a disadvantage to humans. As more and more cities were being built, the population of Sock Beasts was rapidly declining. Only the fittest Sock Beasts could make it through the winter to be able to eat during the spring and summer. Summertime became the main season where the feud of human and Sock Beasts would be at large because in summer, humans had to keep their windows opened to manage the heat. When the windows were opened, Sock Beasts would enter households looking for moths to consume. Screens were not yet formatted to accustom windows allowing Sock Beasts to enter. The major evolutionary change of this species that ultimately named the species was the change in diet. Drawers were not yet invented so clothes were laid out and unguarded. Moths would come and only eat the socks since there was always an abundance of socks and socks had a thinner material which made it easier for the moths to eat. The migration of moths to eating socks led the moths away from the fires. The Sock Beasts followed the source of food and still went for the moths but Sock Beasts found it easier to not only take the socks (which were covered in moths) but also wrap the moths in the sock and consume both the moths and the sock. This evolutionary tactic allowed the Sock Beasts to regain a larger population at the cost that Sock Beasts were getting fatter because of the ease of getting sock filled moths. Again, humans had a reason to exterminate Sock Beasts because of the constant shortage of socks. Sock Beasts overtime began to limit the amount of socks that were consumed and through Darwin’s theory of evolution and theories of natural selection, the only surviving Sock Beasts not only switched its diet to moths but only took one sock (to stay skinny and make it harder for humans to kill them). Eventually, through modernization, washing and drying machines began to become the new common way to wash clothes. Sock Beasts adapted by making a new habit of living in laundry rooms and because their habitat constantly had a flow of humans, the Sock Beasts became so fast to point where humans would not be able to see when Sock Beasts ate. This new heightened speed came at the cost that still only one sock, out of a whole batch of clothing, could be consumed per Sock Beast. Nowadays, Sock Beasts are rare to find because of evolutionary abilities but in Laundromats and laundry rooms, the more humans that clean their clothes, the higher probability that one sock will be missing at the end of the washing cycle. Because Sock Beasts are still prevalent in modern society, humans will always be forced to deal with that one sock that can’t be paired.